Monday, August 15, 2016

dashi

When I hear the word "dashi", I think of "soup" or "stock".

But in Yamagata prefecture, "dashi" is a hodgepodge of veggies which is eaten to fight off natsubate (heat exhaustion).

I got the idea from a television show and it is super easy to put together.

A medium sized eggplant
3 okra
10 leaves shiso (perilla)
2 myoga (Japanese ginger)
2 small Japanese cucumber
2 tablespoons dashi-shoyu
1 teaspoon sesame seeds

Mince the eggplant and put into a bowl of water to get out the aku (astringency)
Mince up the rest of the veggies.
Drain the water from the eggplant.
In a bowl, put all the veggies and drizzle the dashi-shoyu
Add the sesame seeds
Mix well and chill

NOTES: In Yamagata, they put this on top of their rice, but we enjoyed it on tofu. This was so easy to put together and so refreshing. I'm making this again.

FYI: if you cannot find dashi-shoyu where you are, it might be best to put some together. Of course the ratios might need to be tweaked but I think a 1 to 1 ratio of dashi (stock) to shoyu (soy sauce), would be a good start.

UPDATE: I noticed on my dashi shoyu that there were other ingredients like mirin & sugar in it, I found an easy recipe here, which might be a better start to making your own dashi-shoyu.

Enjoy!

6 comments:

Tamakikat said...

Looks delicious, sounds easy. Surprised the eggplant isn't cooked.

KirkK said...

Wow, never heard of this before. Thanks for sharing.

K and S said...

very easy TK! hope you like it.

very different Kirk :)

Take care you two.
Kat

jalna said...

Looks so good!!

Rowena said...

I've always heard that eggplant should never be eaten raw, so this method is the first I've ever seen.

K and S said...

Thanks Jalna, this is super refreshing!

I wonder if it has to do with the type of eggplant, Rowena? In Japan, we often eat it raw.

Take care you two.
Kat